Blessings and Gratitude

When I first began this blog ummm….. several years ago, I was inspired by a lovely blogger by the name of April who writes as Mom of 3 is Nuts.
She was on her own journey at the time and found solace and joy in each day by looking for the blessings.
Being the original type of person that I am (I say that tongue in cheek), I decided that since my life was also pretty low at the time, I would borrow her idea and look for my own blessings every day. This has become a practice that I have continued throughout the years and still continue on a daily basis. I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter what type of day, month or year I have had, there is always something to be grateful for. Always. Without fail.

Looking for the blessings in a situation is always just a matter of changing your perspective.
Lost my job? More time to spend with the lovely Teen (even if it is to nag her to clean her room now that she is on school holidays) and to do things I’ve wanted to do for a while now.
Car troubles? At least it didn’t happen at a time when there was no money to repair it. Or I ended up stranded on the side of a road.

You can see what I mean. When you look at things from a different perspective, it allows you to see the blessings. When you recognise that you are blessed, it is much easier to be grateful.

So much has happened in my own life over the past 10 years or so. Much of it has been life changing, yet I have so much to be grateful for as well.
I still have my health (it is up and down at times but I am at peace within myself). I have my family. They too have had their issues and we have lost a precious grandchild but what a blessing she was to us in the few short hours we had her. She taught us all so much about ourselves, life, love and our ability to recognise the strengths within us.
I have friends.
And I have love.

So much that happens day by day has the ability to upset us. What other people do and say is totally beyond our control. However, what is in our control is our ability to change the perception of the situation in order to see the blessing. Even if that blessing is our recognition that the situation is beyond our control. Acceptance is also a blessing.

At this time of year, many of us (myself included) spend time reflecting on the past year. Reflection is a great tool for learning and self development. However if we allow ourselves to dwell on our past, the opportunity for self development is lost.
Our past is just that. It’s gone. We can’t bring it back and we certainly can’t change it.
Serena J. Dyer in her book “Don’t Die with the Music Still In You” describes our past as the wake on a boat. It doesn’t have any input whatsoever in moving the boat (our life) forward. The wake is merely the physical evidence of the boat’s passing.
Our past can’t be changed however we can look for the blessings in what has occurred and then move forward with gratitude.
We can learn from our past and use what we have learned to make changes to our today.

So, I guess the point of this whole blog post is that I have spent much of the past few weeks reviewing my past and learning from it. I have recognised beliefs that I have that no longer serve me and I have learned to forgive myself for what I cannot change. I have then looked for the blessings in much of what has happened and I have been grateful for them.
And life is continuing to go on.

Bless you all.